


We are all stardust

by swallowthewhale



Series: Killervibe Week [28]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Adaptation, Alternate Universe - Stardust Fusion, F/M, Fantasy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:01:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26071552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: To win the heart of his beloved, a young man named Cisco ventures into the realm of fairies to retrieve a fallen star.A Stardust AU.Killervibe Week 2020: Media Adaptation
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Caitlin Snow
Series: Killervibe Week [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/752097
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Killervibedaily Events





	We are all stardust

**Author's Note:**

> Some background in case you haven’t watched or read Stardust. A boy in the town of Wall promises to retrieve a fallen star to win the heart of the woman he loves. He ventures across the wall into Stormhold in the world of faerie to get it, but finds a woman instead. As he and the star travel back to Wall, they are chased by a witch who wants the star’s heart to gain immortality. The gemstone that knocked the star out of the sky and which she carries with her belongs to the king of Stormhold, and the last few remaining princes of Stormhold are looking for it so they can become king.
> 
> I highly recommend both the book and the movie, although they’re a bit different, and the movie is on Netflix in the US right now!

_A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?” Pointless, really - Do the stars gaze back? Now, that’s a question._

Chaos reigns in the inn when Cisco bursts through the door. Prince Primus of Stormhold, who had given Cisco a ride to the inn in pursuit of Caitlin, slumps forward in the bathtub as the lady of the house slashes a long, deadly knife across his neck. Caitlin, in only a bathrobe,pulls Cisco aside as Billy the innkeeper charges them, only to be tossed aside by the unicorn and tumble to the ground in the form of a goat. The lady - a witch, its now obvious - screeches as green flames burst from her hands and set the inn alight.

Cisco and Caitlin back away until there’s no where left to go.

“Caitlin?” Cisco says, digging his hand into his pocket as they watch fury and greed contort the beautiful witch’s face into something far uglier. “Hold me tight and think of home.”

Cisco thrusts the hand holding the Babylon candle into the green flames surrounding them, pain shooting up his arm as bright, white light bursts forth around them.

“What the hell did you do?” Cisco yells furiously when he blinks the bright spots out of his eyes and looks around at their predicament. Rain pours down on them, soaking them instantly, and all that Cisco can see in any direction are thick grey clouds lit by thin bolts of lightning, including the one they are standing on.

“What did _I_ do?” Caitlin shouts. “What did _you_ do? ‘Think of home,’ that was a great plan! You thought of your home and I thought of mine, and now we’re between the two!”

“What did you think of your home for?” Cisco asks in astonishment. “We’re supposed to go to Wall!”

“You just said home!” Caitlin cries, throwing up her hands. “If you wanted me to think of _your_ home, you should have said!”

“Some crazy lady was about to cut out your heart, and you wanted more specific instructions? Perhaps you'd like it in writing! Or a diagram, maybe!”

Whatever sharp response Caitlin means to give is cut off as a thick rope net drops suddenly over their heads and sweeps them onto the deck of a ship. A group of men hover over them, rain slicking off their dark waxed coats. In the dim light, neither Cisco nor Caitlin is able to make out their expressions.

“Look, Captain,” one finally says as they all step away. “Caught ourselves a little bonus!”

“Great Caesar’s Ghost!” A silver-haired man exclaims, pushing to the front of the group.

Cisco presumes this man must be the captain, as they are swiftly and unceremoniously dragged to the brig, where they sit for several hours tied back to back, waiting for the Captain to return.

The Captain, who eventually introduces himself as Captain Stein, yells at them a bit, manhandles Cisco and pretends to toss him off board to the cheers of the crew, before sitting down with a bewildered Cisco, uncomfortable in just his underwear, and a shivering Caitlin, still in the bathrobe, over a cup of tea in his quarters.

“So,” Captain Stein says, chipper, pouring cups out for all of them. “That went rather well, I thought.”

Caitlin and Cisco exchange disbelieving looks.

“I can’t believe your crew fell for that,” Caitlin says. “Where did you even get that mannequin from?”

“Oh!” Stein says, throwing up his hands. “It works every time. An ounce of bargaining, a pinch of trickery, a _soupçon_ of intimidation, _et voila_! The perfect recipe for a towering reputation without ever having to spill one drop of blood. Ever try to get blood stains out of a silk shirt? A nightmare.”

Cisco laughs. “But I still don’t understand how they won’t recognize me.”

“Cisco, my dear boy,” Stein says conspiratorially. “When I’m done, your own mother won’t recognize you!”

Cisco shakes his head a little, as he’d never met his mother and knows only the story his father had told him before he’d set off to find the star, he finds it unlikely that she would recognize him _now_ , but he doesn’t argue.

Stein claps his hands. “We've no time to waste! We have only two hours before we make port. First and foremost…” the Captain stands and crosses the quarters to throw open a door. “Clothes!”

Stein hands Cisco an admittedly dashing white duster and a clean shirt and pants and instructs Caitlin to choose a dress, of which she selects a lovely blue silk gown sewn with tiny silver stars and moons. He tells them about his father and trying to live up to his reputation as he cuts Cisco’s hair, which is just a few inches long one minute, and then brushing the tops of his shoulders the next.

And true to his word, when the Captain and his crew return from port to find Stein’s “nephew” Cisco on board, no one bats an eye.

Cisco and Caitlin spend their days on _The Firestorm_ gathered on the deck with the crew, learning to turn the sails and mend the nets in preparation for thunderstorms, when they are given raincoats and set to help the crew catch lightning. Cisco’s skin darkens to a pleasant nut brown in the sun as Stein tutors him in fencing, though Caitlin’s complexion remains as pale as the day she fell from the sky.

In the evenings, they light torches around the main deck and Stein guides Caitlin through the steps of a waltz or they gather in the Captain’s quarters and Cisco tinkers with the beautiful telescope set by the window while Stein teaches Caitlin to pluck out a simple tune on the piano. On their last night aboard, the entire crew gathers on deck and the first mate, Jax, turns the crank of a record player. Caitlin stumbles through the waltz with Stein, laughing at her own missteps.

“Caitlin, my darling,” Stein murmurs as they move around the deck. “I know what you are.”

The faint glow that had been growing around Caitlin like a halo vanishes as quickly as her smile.

“No, no. Have no fear. No one on this vessel will harm you, but there are plenty who would. The very thing that makes you different is what makes you special,” Stein says softly. “You've been glowing more brightly every day, and I think you know why.”

“Of course I know why I'm glowing,” Caitlin says defensively. “I’m a star. And what do stars do best?”

“Certainly not the waltz,” Stein says dryly and he looks meaningfully at Caitlin when Cisco cuts in, offering his hand to Caitlin for a dance.

She turns her face away from the knowing look in Stein’s eyes and focuses on the steps and the warmth of Cisco’s arm under her hand, and though she tries very hard to control it, the glow brightens around her once more.

* * *

In the morning, _The Firestorm_ lands on the edges of a lake 90 miles from Wall, and Cisco and Caitlin disembark with a kiss on Caitlin’s cheek and a whisper in Cisco’s ear from Stein, a rousing cheer from the crew, and a bolt of lightning.

“What did he say to you?” Caitlin asks after several minutes of walking in silence.

“What did he say when?” Cisco asks absently, rather distracted by the pretty picture Caitlin makes set against the lush greens and blues of the landscape before them.

“Just then,” Caitlin says. “When he whispered to you.”

“No... No, he…” Cisco fumbles. "He was just saying we should use the lightning to get you a Babylon candle. Barter for it, you know.”

Caitlin lets this pass for the obvious evasion it is and they continue on for some time until Cisco halts.

“Caitlin,” he says, looking ahead of them towards a faint noise. Suddenly, he throws them both off the path into the thick vegetation beside the road, landing above Caitlin as she frowns at him.

“Are you trying to break my leg again?” Caitlin asks a little crossly, although the glow around her face is brightening.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” Cisco apologizes hastily. “I just... I can't risk people seeing you. I don't trust anyone.”

Caitlin rolls her eyes. “But at this rate, if we keep stopping…"

“Caitlin,” he interrupts, shushing her with a finger. “We're making good time. Just leave it a minute.”

She obliges, letting the warmth of their proximity wash over her, her hands on his chest where the steadiness of his heart both calms her and stirs up a now-familiar tingling sensation. Then the question that has been on her mind since they escaped from the witch bursts forth. “Aren't you tempted?”

“Tempted?” Cisco asks, turning back to her from where he was looking down the path over his shoulder. His nose brushes hers, gaze dropping to her mouth “By what?”

She turns her head away slightly. “Immortality,” Caitlin says quietly. “Let's say it wasn't my heart. Not me. Just a star you didn't know.”

“You seriously think I could kill anyone?” Cisco jokes, still in a whisper.

They both laugh.

He shakes his head. “I mean, even if I could… Everlasting life? It sounds kind of boring.”

Caitlin’s brow furrows and she looks away from the earnestness of his expression.

“Well,” Cisco amends. “Maybe if you had someone to share it with. Someone you love. Maybe then it might be different.”

Her mouth trembles and the warmth fades. He must be thinking of his Lisa, Caitlin knows.

“Come on, I think we're safe,” Cisco says, standing and helping her to her feet. Caitlin pushes the hair off her face from where it had escaped her bun, lets him take her cape and guide her down the path with a hand on her back, and tries desperately not to think about what will happen when they reach their destination.

“You know,” Cisco says after some time, when the sun has lowered and a chill has set enough that Caitlin has Cisco’s coat draped over her shoulders. “You sort of glitter, sometimes. I just noticed it. Is it normal?”

“Let’s see if you can work it out yourself,” Caitlin teases, then immediately takes pity on him and offers a clue. “What do stars do?”

“I don’t know,” Cisco says, hands in his pockets as he draws up to her side, grinning. “Attract trouble?”

Caitlin shoves him with her shoulder, laughing as Cisco stumbles off the path.

“Rude!” Cisco exclaims. “All right, I’m sorry.” He hurries to catch up to her. “Wait, I’m sorry. Do I get another guess?”

He pretends to think.

“Is it… do they know exactly how to annoy a boy named Francisco Ramon?”

Caitlin rolls her eyes at him, and is saved from having to think up a clever retort when they come upon a road marker reading:

_The Wall_

_60 miles_

“How long will that take?” Caitlin asks, the twinge of pain in her newly healed legs already bothering her after one long day of walking.

“Maybe two days,” Cisco says.

Caitlin shakes her head. “But we don’t have two days, Lisa’s birthday is tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Cisco says, looking troubled. “Yes, it is. You remembered.”

This reminder of their purpose turns them both silent once more until a yellow cart approaches them on the road, and after Caitlin recognizes the driver as a friend of Captain Stein’s, they emerge to barter for transpiration to Wall.

Caitlin grows increasingly irritated as the lady stubbornly ignores her, speaking only to Cisco as he negotiates the trade of the little white glass snowdrop he wears in his lapel for passage on her cart.

“Do you have any idea what manner of thing it was that you had?” The lady asks.

“Some kind of lucky charm?” Cisco responds.

“A very lucky charm indeed,” the lady says smugly. “Protection. In fact, the exact same thing that would've prevented me from doing this.”

Caitlin watches in horror as the lady taps him on the forehead and he shrinks and shrinks into the form of a little grey mouse with big black eyes, a bushy tail, and a twitchy nose.

Caitlin launches herself at the lady as she scoops him up, banging her arms uselessly at an invisible barrier that seems to hold Caitlin away from the lady. The whisper of a familiar voice echos through Caitlin’s mind as she reaches for the mouse.

_You shall not see the star, touch it, smell or hear it-_

Caitlin drops her arms, staring baffled after the lady as she cackles, and Caitlin storms after her into the back of the cart.

“Would I be right in thinking that you can neither see nor hear me?” Caitlin asks as the lady places mouse-Cisco into a cage. “Then I'd like to tell you that you smell of urine. And you look like the wrong end of a dog,” she snaps. "And I _swear_ , if I don't get my Cisco back as he was, I’ll be your personal poltergeist!”

Caitlin’s shouted insult is cut off by the door of the cart snapping shut.

“Cisco?” Caitlin says, bending towards the cage as the cart starts to rattle. “If you can understand me, look at me now.”

Mouse-Cisco’s beady eyes turn towards her and Caitlin narrows her eyes at him before spotting the block of cheese hung from the rafters of the cart behind her. Sighing, Caitlin pinches off a piece and offers it to him through the bars of the cage.

She perches on the bed, letting out a little half-sigh, half-laugh as she watches mouse-Cisco eat the cheese. “You know when I said I knew little about love?”

Caitlin shakes her head.

“Well, that wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it. I've seen centuries and centuries of it. And it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable. All those wars. Pain and lies. Hate. It made me want to turn away and never look down again.”

She smiles sadly. “But to see the way that mankind loves. I mean, you could search the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful. So, yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and, well, strangely easy to mistake for loathing!”

Caitlin laughs, memories of their horrendous first meeting and those early bitter arguments coming to mind. “And,” she inhales sharply. “What I'm trying to say, Cisco, is I think I love you.

“My heart, it feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it doesn't belong to me anymore. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange. No gifts, no goods, no demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you love me, too.

“Just your heart in exchange for mine.”

* * *

The lady does, in fact, honor their agreement and turns Cisco back into a human once they reach the wall. Caitlin scowls over her shoulder at the lady as she helps Cisco, stumbling and disoriented, into the town and to an inn where they rent a room.

Caitlin deposits Cisco in the bed to sleep off the stress of the transformation, and Caitlin takes advantage of the hot bath that the maid had drawn for them when she showed them to the room.

“Excuse me?” Cisco says cheekily, chin resting on the edge of the little peephole cut into the screen dividing them.

“Cisco!” Caitlin startles, sitting up to turn her back to him.

“I think you're in my bath,” Cisco teases.

“Well, close your eyes!” Caitlin exclaims, resting her forehead on the edge of the tub to hide her flushed cheeks.

Cisco laughs. “I'm not…” He closes the peephole, holding his hands up innocently. “Honestly, I'm not looking.”

Caitlin checks over her shoulder to see that his back is to her, hands still held up, and hurries to wrap a towel around herself. “All right, you can open them now.”

He turns, smiling sheepishly, and asks, “Did you really mean what you said in the caravan?”

Caitlin’s eyes go wide. “What I… But…” she says, horrified. “But you were a mouse! You were a mouse! You wanted cheese! You didn’t…” Caitlin hides her face in her hands. “I asked you to give me a sign,” she says, voice muffled, turning away so her hair sweeps over her face.

“And risk you being too embarrassed to keep saying such nice things?” Cisco asks, turning her back towards him by her shoulders and pressing their foreheads together.

Caitlin laughs, hand still covering her mouth.

Cisco kisses her forehead, speaking quietly into her hair. “You want to know what Captain Stein really whispered to me that day?

Caitlin nods and Cisco pulls away to gently draw her hands into his.

“He told me that my true love was right in front of my eyes. And he was right.”

Cisco touches his hand to Caitlin’s cheek and even through his shut eyes, he can see Caitlin’s bright glow when he kisses her.

Cisco rises early the morning of Lisa’s birthday. He cuts a little piece of Caitlin’s bright hair, which he folds into his handkerchief, and kisses her cheek as she sleeps on in their bed. After failing to find pen and paper to leave a note, he leaves a message for her with the innkeeper and hurries into Wall to knock on Lisa’s door.

He gives Lisa the kerchief wrapped around the lock of hair, and after Lisa wraps her arms around his neck, he dips her backwards and dumps her unceremoniously on her rump in the dusty street.

And when Lisa unwraps the bundle, she asks bitterly, “Well, why would I want this? It’s just a measly handful of stardust.”

Lisa throws the handkerchief back to him and Cisco opens it, the glittering dust lifting away in the breeze.

 _I will show you fear in a handful of dust_ , Cisco thinks.

He’d read it in a book of poetry once and it had struck him as an impossible notion. He understands now, in this moment of terror in which the world stills around him. And then the dust is scattered, and he’s running, heart in his throat, to get to the wall before-

Cisco arrives at the edge of the large field before the wall in time to see two women in blue on the other side, one with Caitlin’s fair hair and one with hair as dark as his, get into the black carriage of the Prince Primus, with a shriveled hag, who Cisco somehow instantly recognizes as the witch from the inn.

Cisco shouts as he sprints across the field, but when he launches himself across the gap in the wall, past the protesting guard, the carriage is gone. The cart and horse of the lady who had turned him into a mouse remains, and without giving the events that may have led to this situation too much thought, he unhitches the horse and spurs it on to follow the carriage.

As always, in faerie, Cisco seems to have an innate sense of which direction to go, and though he cannot see the carriage, he gives chase to a dark, foreboding chasm in which sits a massive black house.

Cisco crouches outside of the window, peering in to see the three hags dragging Caitlin up a set of stairs. A man with strikingly similar features to Primus and with the number seven tattooed on his hand - Septimus, the last remaining Prince of Stormhold - leads Cisco into the house, swords drawn.

Septimus grabs the dark-haired woman, holding his blade to her throat threateningly, until she squirms away and turns to face him.

He halts. “Una?” Septimus asks in disbelief.

“Brother,” Una breathes. Then her eyes widen and she points behind him.

Septimus swerves and quite effectively dispatches one of the witches.

Cisco nearly swings at Una himself as she launches herself at him to push them both behind a stack of cages to avoid the scuffle.

She holds her hands out. “Cisco! No, Cisco! I'm your... I'm your... I'm your mother.” She laughs and presses her hands to his cheeks. “I’m your mother.”

Cisco can only stare at her in disbelief, even as she wraps her arms around him.

But shouts from Septimus rouse them from their reunion, and they watch as the witch drops a little effigy into the fountain and Septimus slowly rises, as if falling into water, before crashing back to the floor in a puddle of water.

The witches turn back to where Caitlin is strapped to a stone altar, and Cisco rushes forward to engage with the second witch as Una escapes out the door.

With only one witch remaining, Cisco strides confidently up to meet her in the center of the room.

“So what’s it to be, Prince Charming?” She asks gleefully. “Frog or tadpole?”

A streak of green light emerges from the tip of her finger and rushes toward him, only to be swept to the side by an invisible force.

The witch hisses and tries again. After the third attempt, Cisco grins at her and reveals the little white snowdrop, safely returned to his lapel after reclaiming it from the yellow cart.

The witch howls in fury, sending objects from around the room crashing towards him. Cisco scrambles for the bottled lightning and aims it towards the witch, sending her skidding across the floor.

Cisco caps the case and spares little more than a glance for the witch before hurrying up the stairs to free Caitlin. They make it only as far as halfway to the door when all the mirrors around them shatter.

Cisco throws himself over Caitlin as they drop down to avoid the glass and behind them, the witch cackles, echoing off the walls.

“I owe you thanks, boy,” the witch says, descending the stairs with a long blade held aloft. “What use was her heart to me when it was broken? And you got rid of my sisters, and now I can have it all for myself.”

Cisco takes a half step forward, but Caitlin pulls him back by his elbow.

“Hold me tight and close your eyes,” she says.

“What, why?” Cisco asks, even as he turns to wrap his arms around her waist.

“What do stars do?” Caitlin murmurs into his ear, her arms coming up around his shoulders. “Shine.”

A light more brilliant than the faint glow of candlelight Caitlin had worn before bursts through the room. It’s the light and heat of a sun’s presence, wrapped up in the arms of the man she loves.

The screams of the witch seem distant, and when Caitlin’s starlight fades, they see only a smear of embers across the stone staircase.

Sweat streaks down Cisco’s face, but despite the destruction wrought, he feels only as if he’d stood too close to a fire. “Why didn’t you do that earlier?”

Caitlin shakes her head, smiling at him. “I couldn’t have done that without you. No star can shine with a broken heart. I thought I’d lost you.” Her voice wavers. “But you came back.”

“Of course I did,” Cisco says, brushing Caitlin’s hair off her face. “I love you.”

Caitlin laughs and Cisco can hardly kiss her for smiling.

“Hey, wait,” Cisco says as Caitlin tugs him towards the door. He bends to pick up the pale crystal Caitlin had been carrying all this time on a chain around her waist. The chain is broken and the crystal dislodged from its setting.

He carries it over to where Una and Caitlin are embracing, watching in fascination as the gem slowly changes color in his hand.

“The last surviving male heir of the Stormhold bloodline,” Una says matter-of-factly. “It’s you, Cisco.”

* * *

There’s a whirlwind of a week after that day, in which Cisco, Caitlin, and Una return to Wall to reunite with Cisco’s father, and then the four of them travel to Stormhold for Cisco to claim his place at the throne.

Cisco and Caitlin hardly have a moment to themselves, and so Cisco doesn’t ask the question he desperately wants an answer to.

And the night before they reach the Stormhold castle, while Cisco’s parents sit around their fire, Cisco and Caitlin walk up a little hill to where the city is spread out before them like a sky of stars and the castle a moon at its center.

“Caitlin,” Cisco says after they sit at the peak of the hill, suddenly fumbling for the best way to ask if she’s returning home. “Will you stay?”

Caitlin looks at him, startled. “Of course,” she says, as if he should have know the answer all along. She slips her hand into his and squeezes. “This is home.”


End file.
